Philosophy of Economics: On Community Wealth Building Fourth Year Seminar Autumn, 2021 - The ...

Philosophy of Economics:
           On Community Wealth Building
                Fourth Year Seminar
                    Autumn, 2021

Course Description:

A radical socialist reconstruction of our economy is quietly under way.
Community Wealth Building is the project of shifting economic power
from states and the wealthy minority to workers and municipalities.
Scotland is at the forefront of this movement, with projects underway in
North Ayrshire, Argyll and Bute, Harris, Perth and Kinross, parts of
Glasgow and Edinburgh, and elsewhere. In this course – perhaps the first
of its kind – will examine the moral foundations of this model, partly by
contrasting it with capitalist and socialist alternatives. We will read some
of the intellectual history of the movement as well as writings by
contemporary theorists and policymakers.

Personnel:

Course Secretary: Ms. Ann-Marie Cowe (philinfo@ed.ac.uk)
Course Organiser: Dr. Barry Maguire (bmaguire@ed.ac.uk)

Seminars: Mondays from 11.10am until 1pm.

Venue T.B.C. Please check LEARN for location and any updates.

Office Hours:

Barry Maguire, Tuesdays from 12.00 – 1300, generally on Teams. To set up
a slot at office hours, email me any time before 12 on the relevant Tuesday
morning.

Course Structure:

This is a fourth year seminar. We meet for two hours of discussion each
week. I will occasionally give some background or a quick overview of the
reading. But I do not plan to prepare any lectures. You must come
prepared with questions and arguments for discussion by the group.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course students will be better able to:
    • Explain key ideas and debates in this area of political economy,
        especially concerning the prospects for non-state-based
        reorganization of the economy.
    • Relate, compare, and contrast the positions of various authors
        studied in the course.
    • Think critically about value theoretic questions that bear on
        economic organization.
    • Articulate arguments succinctly and clearly in an essay format.

Accessing Lectures & Readings

All readings will be available on the course’s Resource List.
Read more information on using Resource Lists here.

Assessment:

There are two pieces of assessment for this course:
   • Mid-term essay (maximum 1600 words) (40%): Due Thursday 28th
        October, by 12pm
   • Final essay (maximum 2500 words) (60%): Due Thursday 2nd
        December, by 12pm

More information about the expectations for the essays will be posted on
LEARN plenty of time in advance.

Marking Schemes:

For Philosophy-specific marking guidelines go here:
Grade-related marking guidelines for Philosophy

For the University’s general marking scheme go here:
Common Marking Scheme

Learning Resources

You should regularly check your university email and check for
announcements on the course Learn page. Sometimes, there will also be
announcements and discussion on TEAMS. The course Learn page will
provide information concerning:
   • General information and announcement about the course
   • Seminar arrangements
   • Information about assessment arrangements

Reading Philosophy:

There is a lot of reading in this course. But it could have been a lot longer!
Everything on this syllabus has been carefully chosen. Read each piece a
few times. Read once, quickly, to get the structure of the argument, the
main claims, and the conclusion(s). Read a second time to study the
argument more carefully, to formulate the argument in your own words,
to think up your own examples to illustrate the main claims, and to think
of counterexamples to these claims. Read a third time to soak up any
remaining details. Some excellent reading advice can be found online
here:     www.jimpryor.net/teaching/guidelines/reading.          You       are
encouraged to read anything else that interests you, especially other
chapters in the assigned books. In general, the more you read, the better a
sense you will have of the strengths and weaknesses of prominent views
in any given topic, and of typical forms of argument in the area.

Writing Philosophy:

Please read Jim Pryor’s ‘How to Write a Philosophy Paper’ ten times. Also
read George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language,’ and Angela
Mendelovici’s ‘A Sample Philosophy Paper.’ Do not infer from the fact
that someone is a great philosopher that it is permissible for you to try to
write like they do.

Questions?

For all general questions about the course please use the GENERAL
COURSE QUESTIONS discussion forum. This includes questions about
the Learn page, availability of lectures and readings and general academic
matters. Before you post, look in the forum to see if someone already
posted the same question. Questions will be answered regularly,
throughout the week.

For administrative questions (e.g. about submission of assignments), you
should contact the Course Secretary. If you have a question regarding
specific lecture content you should ask it - in the lecture Q&A discussion
- in your tutorial group - during (online) office hours.

If you have a question about specifically academic matters that pertains
only to you (e.g. special circumstances) contact the Course Organiser via
email.

Optional Background Reading:

Community Wealth Building, A History.
   - Read online here: https://cles.org.uk/wp-
     content/uploads/2021/08/CWB-a-history-FINAL2.pdf
   - Podcast: https://cles.org.uk/blog/podcast-community-wealth-
     building-a-history/?mc_cid=13a0988ddb&mc_eid=93bc354016

Owning the Economy, Community Wealth Building 2020:
  - Read online here: https://cles.org.uk/wp-
      content/uploads/2020/10/Community-Wealth-Building-2020-
      final-version.pdf

The Manifesto for Local Economies:
   - Read online here: https://cles.org.uk/wp-
      content/uploads/2019/11/Manifesto-FINAL.pdf

Christine Berry, ‘After Corbynomics’

Joe Guinan, ‘Democracy and decentralisation are their watchwords: for
Corbyn and McDonnell, it’s municipal socialism reinvented’

G.D.H. Cole, Guild Socialism and Guild Socialism Restated

Thomas Piketty, Capitalism and Ideology, especially chapters 10 – 13 and 17

And some good general introductions to political economy:

Satz, Hausman, and McPherson, Economic Analysis, Moral Philosophy, and
Public Policy

Geffrey Schneider, et al, Introduction to Political Economy

The Core Team, The Economy, Economics for a Changing World, available as
a book or online here: https://www.core-econ.org/

Required Weekly Readings

Warning: Subject to Change with Plenty of Advance Warning

Unit One: Setting the Scene:

Week One:

    -   Mary Robertson, ‘Left Economics from Below?’

    -   Joe Guinan and Martin O’Neill, The Case for Community Wealth
        Building, Chapter One: What is Community Wealth Building?

Week Two:

    -   Kali Akuno and Ajamu Nangwaya, Jackson Rising: The Struggle
        for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson,
        Mississippi. Parts 2-4

Unit Two: Intellectual Background

Week Three: Hardie

    -   Keir Hardie, From Serfdom to Socialism, chapters 2 (Municipal
        Socialism), 3 (Socialism and the State), and 5 (Socialism and the
        Worker)

Week Four: Cole

    -   GD.H. Cole, Guild Socialism Restated, chapters 1 (The Demand for
        Freedom), 2 (The Basis for Democracy), and 3 (A Guild in Being)

Week Five: Bookchin & Lenin

    -   Murray Bookchin, Libertarian Municipalism, an overview:
        Online here:
        http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/anarchist_archives/bookchin/gp/per
        spectives24.html

-   Vladimir Lenin: Municipalisation of the Land and Municipal
        Socialism
        Online here:
        https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1907/agrprogr/ch
        04s7.htm

Week Six: Pateman

    -   Carole Pateman, Participation and Democratic Theory, chapters 3
        (The sense of political efficacy and participation in the
        workplace), and 4 (‘Participation’ and ‘democracy’ in industry)

Unit Three: Practice

Week Seven: Economics of CWB

    -   Emily Sladek, ‘The Transformative Power of Anchor
        Institutions’: https://community-wealth.org/content/urban-and-
        metropolitan-universities-transformative-power-anchor-
        institutions
    -   Philip B. Whyman, ‘The Economics of the Preston Model’ and
        ‘Economic Democracy and Economic Development’, both in The
        Preston Model and Community Wealth Building

Week Eight: Cultural Conditions

    -   Hilary Abell, ‘Seizing the Moment: Catalyzing Big Growth for
        Worker Cooperatives’
    -   Caitlin Quigley, ‘Creating a Corporate Culture’
        Both in Scaling Up the Cooperative Movement

    -   Esteban del Rio and John Loggins, ‘Aligning Equity,
        Engagement, and Social Innovation in Anchor Initiatives’
        https://journals.iupui.edu/index.php/muj/article/view/22377

Week Nine: Industrial Epistemology, the Case of Pharmacy in Scotland

    -   Crossan, Lane, and White, ‘An Organizational Learning
        Framework: From Intuition to Institution’

-   Documents on pharmacy managerial structures in Scotland, to
        be uploaded to Learn nearer the time

Unit Four: The Case for Community Wealth Building

Week Ten:

    -   Guinan and O’Neill, The Case for Community Wealth Building,
        Chapters Two and Three

Week Eleven:

    -   Consolidation of arguments for and against CWB